This invention relates generally to the field of banking and payments and more specifically to a method and system for collecting bank account information and securely linking an existing computer based electronic user account to those banking credentials for the purpose of authenticating the individual making such representations for making secure payments to the individual's bank account.
At the time of this invention, most business-to-business payments are made by check. This is slow and costly. We expect to reduce costs by making payments using the electronic banking system. In order to use that system, we must have a computer application and process in place to ensure, as best as possible, that payments are being directed to the desired payee. This application provides a way for accomplishing secure collection of bank account information as well as validation of the individual registering that bank account information. This is also to be accomplished over the Internet without face-to-face communication.
Prior systems simply use clerks to key faxed or mailed information and to complete a pre-authorization or “pre-note” transaction to verify that the account is valid. Perhaps, in some cases, a small value credit transaction is completed to verify that the specified account is receiving payment activity.
Also, with earlier systems only account information was collected, not identification information on the individual providing the banking information. Previously, it was a manual process to link the account with the paperwork submitted. Historically, a government issued photo ID has not been collected.